The majority of cartoons on tv these days are American, and unlike Anime, they don't really have a fixed style; there are SO many cartoons, but they vary a LOT, from cartoon styles like 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' to Disney's 'Pocahontas'. =]
Like I was talking about in the Japenese Anime post, most American kids cartoons don't really deal with too important issues.. There are not many based on the fight between good and evil unless you count Batman or whatever-and not many have strong morals behind them. American cartoons tend to contain a lot more characters that the kids can't relate to. A lot of main characters are confident and don't show much struggle throughout the shows.
But then again a lot of cartoons showing like Cartoon Networks 'Ed, Edd, and Eddy'^, are based from kids points of view and the everyday struggles they face. But the struggles they tend to face are things like wars against the 'nerds' in their class; not self-accepting, emotional struggles we see in a lot of Anime cartoons.It's weird the way that the cartoons seem to be reflecting the people of the country's attitude- the Americans are appearing to be much more confident and self-assured. =]
Of course i'm not goina say all American cartoons are like this, of course they all aren't. It's just it seems much more common in American cartoons than in Anime to have confident superheroes as the main character.
As you can see from the picture of Ed, Edd and Eddy, the clothing is very much westernized.. The typical American cartoons shown on tv show that are set in a town, feature all western buildings such as sky scrapers and big houses, in contrast to the japanese building style shown in the Spirited Away trailer.
The most popular American cartoon character has been voted to be Homer Simpson from the show ''The Simpsons''. The show is based on what is supposed to be a normal small American town, [with a few obvious differences, i don't think there's that many mothers out there with 3 foot high blue hair =D]. It follows the family through their many adventures, but it's supposed to be based on an typical American family. Homer works in a job he hates in a power plant, loves fast food, is exceptionally thick, and is an all around couch potato.
The Simpsons really is an all around American cartoon, it's set in America, and made by Americans. =]
The trailer for The Simpsons Movie
As you can see from the video, the clothing is really westernized and so are the buildings and the surroundings, and also in the clip you can see Bart in a church, going back to what i was saying about the religious influences in cartoons-> Christianity is one of the main religions in America, so naturally Bart would be in a Christian church. =]
So while there are way too many American cartoons out there for me to stereotype them all to the one group, a LOT of the cartoons are greatly influenced-even without the creators even noticing-by where they are made.
